experientialed

A Journey to Ecuador: Connecting with Mountains and People
Course Dates: January 13- 26, 2005

Sign-up Procedure:

Fill out registration, medical and waiver form located in the Ralf S.
O'Connor Recreation Center kiosk on the Homewood campus. Give
registration and $100 check made out to JHU to the Office of Recreation by
5:00 May 14, 2004.

Cost:

* $1,800 plus airfare
* $100 non-refundable down payment due May 7, 2004
* Full payment due September 6, 2004
* Anyone associated with JHU is welcome on this course

This cost includes all food, group gear, and most of the technical
climbing equipment you'll need. Participants will be given a personal
clothing and gear list during the summer.

Course Description:

For 14 days, we will travel, work, and climb in a country of incredible
beauty and contrasts. Economically poor, environmentally rich, this is a
land of extreme poverty and 20,000 foot volcanoes. Ecuador offers us a
chance to interact in a significant way with local people who can use some
help while offering us rich insights into our own beliefs and cultural
perspectives. As the following schedule suggests, there will be a mixture
of service days and acclimatization to prepare us for Cotopaxi, one of the
world's highest active volcanoes at 19,340 feet.

This course emphasizes the connections we can make with others. Whether
working together to distribute food and clothing, or keeping one another
safe on a rope team at 18, 000 feet on a glacier, the concepts of service,
cooperation, and teamwork are the same. We fully intend this course to be
far more than a standard guided trip. Instead, we hope to cultivate a
deeper spirit of care and concern for one another in a global sense.

With that in mind, we offer here a partial list of the opportunities this
course offers:

* Developing new relationships and friendships with other group
members and people of a different culture
* A chance to broaden cultural perspectives
* Learning how to help, and be helped by others in a variety of
challenging settings
* Climbing significant peaks of varying difficulty
* A chance to climb a huge glaciated peak on a very enjoyable yet
demanding route
* On-going opportunities to reflect upon each experience and
transfer new learning back home
* Learning the techniques and attitudes that will keep a group
safe in the mountains
* Appreciating the similarities and differences between two
cultures
* A chance to read and study some of the finest works of
mountaineering literature

Our trip will run concurrently with a credited Intersession course,
“Mountaineering Narratives.” The course will introduce students to the
literature of high-altitude adventure. It will focus on 20th century
climbers and their expeditions, bringing into discussion some of the most
exciting, and ethically problematic, attempts on the world's highest
peaks.

We will look at how the raw data about an expedition is assembled into a
coherent text. While doing so, we will keep our own journals of our
climbs in Ecuador, with a view toward assembling a final joint account of
our “expedition.” Most of the books we will be reading are simply great
yarns, and we will try to understand what adds so much flavor and
authority to certain writers' accounts.

A preliminary list of texts from which a final list will be selected
includes:

Annapurna, Herzog

-148, Davidson (the title refers to a temperature reading
during the expedition, the first winter ascent of Mt. McKinley)

Clouds from Both Sides, Tullis

Everest, the West Ridge, Hornbein

True Summit, Roberts

The White Spider, Harrer

Nanda Devi, Roskelley

Solo Faces, Salter

A Climber's Life, Messner

K2: the 1939 Tragedy, Kauffman

Proposed Itinerary:

Day 1- Travel, group introductions

Day 2- Orientation to service locations and Quito

Day 3- Service project

Day 4- Climbing wall to work on technical skills

Day 5- Service project

Day 6- Service project

Day 7- Rucu Pinchincha (acclimatizing climb to 15,413 feet)

Day 8- Touring Day

Day 9- Drive to Cotopaxi National Park; hike to climber's hut at
15,700 feet

Day 10- Snow school/Crevasse Rescue

Day 11- Climb Cotopaxi; return to Quito

Day 12- Otovalo-Famous Indian Market

Day 13- Debrief course, shopping spree

Day 14- Travel